I just bought a living quarters horse trailer, and need to know what to do with the pipes, and what other winter steps do I take to keep it ok. I'm brand knew to the Living quarters world.

Thanks

Ellie

Hello Ellie .. Welcome to the forum

The whole point of winterizing your LQ trailer is to prevent freeze damage.  Most people drain the systems tanks and add RV antifreeze to keep any remaining water from freezing.   Only use RV antifreeze.  Automotive antifreeze is toxic.  You don't want to drink or use any to wash.

The best "How to" advice is going to come from the dealer or previous owner.  Some one, that is familar with your trailer's system.  Unless they're from a warmer climate than yours.  As a "damm Yankee, I can attest that southerner's can't comprehend sustained subzero weather"

To start with, you want to drain all the water out of your freshwater holding tank.  Next you will need to pump RV antifreeze through all the lines.  In some LQ trailers, you can bypass the fresh water tank and open a line to put in the antifreeze to pull through the pump.  The trailer I have requires you to disconnect the line from the freshwater pump and then reconnect a new line to the pump for the antifreeze. Before pumping you will want to bypass your hot water heater to prevent this from entering the heater.  This hot water heater will also need to be drained from the outside in most cases.  Once you have the pump ready to pump the antifreeze in, you will go to all the sinks and run the cold and hot water lines till the antifreeze comes through.  This needs to be done where water comes out: toilet, sinks, outside faucets.    Now in some cases, I have seen people add the antifreeze to their fresh water holding tanks to ensure no water is left in there to cause problems.  I have a Showtime LQ where I can raise my trailer up and hook up a shop vac while I am pumping in the antifreeze and it does a good job removing any leftover water from the freshwater holding tank.  Once I am done I pour whatever is left of the antifreeze down the sinks to make sure there is enough in the traps on them to keep them from freezing.  This process will normally take less than 30 minutes to do with any given trailer.